1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to linear compressors and, more particularly, to a linear compressor which does not generate eddy currents in an inside stator of a linear motor thereof, and to a method of producing the linear compressor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a linear compressor is a machine that draws and compresses gas refrigerant in a refrigerating system or an air conditioning system, such as a refrigerator or an air conditioner, which is operated by running a refrigeration cycle.
A conventional linear compressor includes a hermetic casing that defines an appearance of the linear compressor, with a linear motor and a compression unit both being housed in the hermetic casing. The linear motor generates the driving power when the linear motor is turned on by electricity supplied from an external power source, while the compression unit draws gas refrigerant and compresses the refrigerant using the driving power of the linear motor.
The compression unit includes a cylinder block, with a cylinder provided at a central portion of the cylinder block to define a compression chamber therein. A cylinder head is assembled with a lower end of the cylinder block to guide inlet and outlet gas refrigerant relative to the compression chamber of the cylinder. That is, the cylinder head has a suction valve to allow the inlet gas refrigerant to enter the compression chamber, and an exhaust valve to allow the outlet gas refrigerant to be discharged from the compression chamber. A piston is movably received in the compression chamber of the cylinder to linearly reciprocate in the compression chamber using the driving power of the linear motor.
The linear motor includes an inside stator, an outside stator, and a slider. The inside stator has a cylindrical shape and is placed around the cylinder, while the outside stator has a cylindrical shape and is installed around the inside stator to surround the inside stator, with an interval defined between the inside and outside stators. The slider is interposed between the inside and outside stators to linearly reciprocate in an axial direction of the inside and outside stators. The slider has a magnet that cooperates with the inside and outside stators so as to linearly move the piston in the cylinder.
The inside stator has a plurality of thin metal sheets, which are thin steel sheets, as an example, and are arranged around a circumferential surface of the cylinder while being directed in a radial direction, thus forming a cylindrical arrangement. To arrange the thin metal sheets around the circumferential surface of the cylinder to form the cylindrical arrangement, first ends of the thin metal sheets are held by a holder provided on the circumferential surface of the cylinder. Second ends of the thin metal sheets are welded together to maintain the cylindrical arrangement of the thin metal sheets.
However since the thin metal sheets are welded together to maintain the cylindrical arrangement as described above, an electrical contact is formed between the welded metal sheets during a process of welding the metal sheets to produce the inside stator. Therefore, when the slider linearly reciprocates in the axial direction of the inside and outside stators during an operation of the linear compressor, eddy currents are generated in the inside stator, resulting in an eddy current loss to reduce operational performance of the linear compressor.